Detectives cracked a cold case this week when they arrested three suspects in connection with the 2005 murder of a 20-year-old man who was shot in the head and dumped underneath a bridge in Alpine.
According to the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, three men were arrested on Monday in connection with the fatal shooting of victim Daniel Rodriguez nearly eight years ago.
Detectives say the suspects in the cold case include 33-year-old Rashad Lansing, 30-year-old Jose Valdez and 30-year-old John Reyna.
All three men have been booked into the George Bailey Detention Center on charges of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit a crime. They are all scheduled to appear in court Friday.
Cold case investigators say Lansing, Valdez and Reyna allegedly shot Rodriguez in the head on October 13, 2005, and left him under a bridge at Interstate 8 and Tavern Road in Alpine.
Rodriguez was discovered by police later that day and taken to a local hospital with critical wounds. He died three days later -- on October 16, 2005.
Over the past eight years, homicide detectives have searched for Rodriguez’s killers. Finally, on Monday, authorities got a huge break in the case.
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Several law enforcement agencies, including the Sheriff’s Homicide Detail, Cold Case Unit, East County Gang Task Force, the Chula Vista Police Department, the National City Police Department and the FBI arrested the men in connection with the murder.
Officials say the case has now been turned over to the District Attorney’s Office.
In addition to shooting Rodriguez, officials say Valdez is accused of two other murders.
He allegedly shot and killed a man named Joseph Medina in Chula Vista in December 2002 and fatally shot another victim named Francisco Chaires in National City on July 6, 2003. Chaires was found with a gunshot wound to the head in the driver’s seat of his car and later died at the hospital.
